Category Kurilpa Poets Feature Artists

Post navigation

And so the rain poured down and the Tide turned once more in the great Ebb & Flow of Life, and the Water Rats returned, to their ancestoral home, riding the crest of a wave of Creativity, that carried them all the way through Time & Space from 2017 to land once more on the friendly shores of Musgrave Park, on Sunday 25th February 2018.

Not unlike Ulysses, ey what?

Taking refuge in a crude shelter (Croquet Club) they once again engaged in their colourful customs, sharing poetry, food & wine whilst jolly minstrels played the ancient tunes and travellers told their tales…

sheltering from the storm

True the poets arrived dripping with Perspiration as well as Inspiration, but the winning combination of ceiling fans, air-con and the cool tones of Mystery Musician PLANET CLARE soon revived their wilting spirits.

The Mysterious Planet Clare was accompanied on this occasion by the rich pallet of tones and timbres emanating from the instrument of virtuoso Violinist VIOLET SKYE, whom we’ve seen before gracing the stage with a number of different outfits. Ms Skye seems somewhat shy offstage, but put a violin in her hands and a sonic demon is released, screeching & beguiling, threatening & soothing, scary-seductive and electrifying, as PLANET CLARE herself demonstrated her own mastery of many a musical style. One countrified original song of hers was so evocative I was sure I could smell hay and hear the chickens scratching in the straw!

PC’s soars through her songs with ease, but she also has the knack of throwing a break into her voice, that emotive crack in the back of the throat, an evocative twang half-yodel,

half-yelp.

Thank you Ladies for a great performance.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

From the celestial Bodies orbiting high in the sky to the bottom most depths of the Sea we plunged, submerged in the mise-en-scene of Master and Commander

Simon Kindt‘s ambitious new Performance Piece, POSEIDON/the sharks. I say ambitious because once you start dragging technology and props and theatre and so forth into your Poetry act things can become unnecessarily complex and you can lose sight of the poetry itself, which becomes just another special effect, instead of it’s core.

Simon, however, was wise enough to keep it all fairly minimalist and low key. To a backing track of sea shore sounds some soothing strings were mixe, immersing the listener in a gentle wash of sound throughout the performance. A rectangle of watery light like the view-screen at Sea World was projected onto the walls, whilst Simon sat cross-legged in the shadows, a disembodied voice delivering verse.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

An effectively low key set, though I would have liked to see Simon actually sitting in the light and thus becoming part of the screen thereby, his shadow swimming in the water behind him. But the anonymous/ambiguous style he adopted worked just as well.

Simon’s poetry itself was a subtle exploration of the mind’s watery realms. Hypnotic and dreamlike, edging on nightmare, invisible currents in the tranquil sea of watery words, swirled dangerously close to the rocks of Reality..

Thanks Simon for bringing your thoughtful production to Kurilpa.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A fine selection of old Kurilpa friends returned for the first show of 2018. Coming up to the Open Mic this month were

Reverend Hellfire delivering a sermon on the dangers of sly and sneaky Water, Old Salt Geoffrey Evans went effervescing & bubbling a spray of words, Michael Vaughan‘s poetry like a tranquil lake,

the words like ripples across the mirror surface,

Thomas Nelson delivered a steady flow of imagery,

Theresa Tracey-Creed‘s verse, as always, had hidden depths, whilst Calaha shot a comic stream of words into the unsuspecting Face of Authority, serious as slapstick,

and Planet Clare poured a bucket of verse upon the Earthlings below, as SAVANU was all at Sea till he got his Land-legs back (haha)and Arts Director Shane K just swam with the tide until Cam Logan returned bearing an olive branch in his beak. Yes, after forty minutes and forty seconds of free-flowing verse, the Flood of Words was over.

Shane K subsequently delivered a fine discourse on the work of scary American surrealist, George Tooker and his truly disturbing Art that really captures something of the “Ugly Spirit” of the American Century.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The Second Open Mic delivered more unsuspecting Word Pearls coaxed from bedrock anchored Poets.. Michael gave us some Persian reflections on Alexander the Vandal, Tom lamented lost love;”Your hot tears dry on my lips“, Cam shared his wisdom; “You can’t get honey from stirring a hornets nest.” Tounge firmly in cheek Clare told us how; “I miss living with a philosopher”..and Sav delivered an ode to that great man, Vincent Lingiari and Shane read a selection from “The People’s Poet” (No, not Ric).

And then it was “Time please” and survivors dragged themselves to the nearest shanty for grog. The Rumpus Room by the Lizard, so I believe. The scurvy knaves!

The Pictures will tell the rest of the story.

Aaargh!

*

PS A quick reminder that Theresa Tracey-Creed will be performing at the “Moving Words” Event being held at the South Bank Art Gallery in April.Check their website for details.

We asked Simon to explain himself. He sent us the following message, hidden inside a cake, along with a file and 20 metres of rope;

‘the sharks / look at how they come / look at how they do their work’

“Combining poetic theatre, ambient soundscape, and video projection, ‘Poseidon / the sharks’ is a meditation on loss, grief and myth, that walks out into the water, and waits for what will come.”

Simon Kindt is a Brisbane-based poet, teacher, and performer. From 2015, he has been the producer behind the joint QPF-SLQ school slam series SlammED! In 2016 he co-authored the collection ‘wreck / age’ with US poet Bill Moran. ‘wreck / age’ is available through Alien Mouth.You can get a taste of his current show at

Astrologists take note! There is movement in the Musical Zodiac, for Planet Clare, aka Clare Cowley, is due to enter the House of the Water Rat, at 2 pm on Sunday 25th February. Consulting their ancient scrolls, our experts tell us that such an event betokens the advent of Good Times and Fine Music.

Meanwhile in breaking news, a communique has been received from the mysterious Planet Clare herself. Our Cryptologists have decoded the transmission, and tell us it is an example of what Musicians in the old days would call a “Bio”. The message is as follows;

After the launch of her debut album To the Bottom, multi-instrumentalist, Planet Clare toured the east coast and has jetted through India and Australia taking her music and art along for the flight. Planet Clare is Clare Cowley crafting songs with soul, quirks that remind of Joan As Police Woman & a clear blues vocal hinting at Bonnie Raitt.

She has performed both solo and with instrumentalists at numerous & diverse venues all across Australia. Performing with her sister in their duo, The Cowley Sisters, lifting old songs out of the creek bed reminiscent of First Aid Kit; & playing Keys for groups including Chris Brady & the Boys Verse Girls, Planet Clare released her EP in 2004 titled ‘Didn’t Listen’ soon to be re-released as this Variable Start continues to write, record and perform her original music.

Be sure to witness this rare Celestial phenomenon when it she manifests at the olde Croquet Club. In the meantime here’s a little snippet from an appearance of Planet Clare at Sonny’s House of Blues back in 2016. Enjoy.

You can purchase some of her fine tunes at

planetclare.bandcamp.com

**********************

UNSUSPECTED ARTIST; GEORGE TOOKER

We’re deeply concerned our more sensitive patrons may end up suffering nightmares after the 25th, for this month our eccentric and eerily eclectic Visual Arts Director has selected the disturbing Art of American Surrealist, George Tooker to feature on the Virtual Gallery’s Big Screen.

The New York Times described Tooker as being;“a painter whose haunting images of trapped clerical workers and forbidding government offices expressed a peculiarly 20th-century brand of anxiety and alienation.”